


warmth in winter

by Engineer104



Series: Fluff(?)cember Power Hour (or Month) [1]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/M, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Blue Lions Route, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Golden Deer Route, Fluff, Fluffcember 2020, Light Angst, Post-Canon, Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Pre-Relationship, Pre-Timeskip | Academy Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Prompt Fill, a couple of AUs, some very little it is mostly fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:40:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28234833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Engineer104/pseuds/Engineer104
Summary: Annette and Felix hold hands, kiss at a party, and chat by a campfire, among other things.For many days of Fluffcember
Relationships: Annette Fantine Dominic/Felix Hugo Fraldarius
Series: Fluff(?)cember Power Hour (or Month) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2035183
Kudos: 20





	1. Reassurances

**Author's Note:**

> I'm chucking all my netteflix Fluffcember pieces too short to post individually (so i don't flood the tag) as this collection. I'll probably post them in batches two or three times by the end of December. Also please don't look for continuity between these because you will find none!
> 
> The prompt is the chapter title in case you're looking for a specific one too. Regardless, enjoy!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Annette finds Felix sulking after a quarrel with their son.
> 
> For Fluffcember Day 2: "Reassurances"

Annette found Felix lying on his side on their bed with his arms crossed, glaring at the wall. 

Sulking. 

For all Sylvain and Dimitri alike had both assured her that he’d sulked a great deal as a child, she hadn’t quite managed to believe it until she saw it now, for herself. Even in the days after his father died he hadn’t really sulked so much as...strategically retreated to his room to avoid anyone who would treat him like glass. 

(So he’d claimed, anyway.)

Except now Felix was years older and wiser with children of his own, and Annette could not begin to puzzle out why he would be _sulking_ short of another nasty quarrel with Dimitri. So she perched on the bed near his head and patted her thigh. 

Obediently and without a word, Felix settled his head on her lap and submitted to her touch. She brushed his hair away from his face and hummed, waiting. 

He didn’t keep her for long. 

“He told me he hates me,” he mumbled, voice almost muffled by her skirts. 

Annette froze, frowning. “Who did?”

“Ernest.”

She blinked once, twice, three times before a giggle burst from her. When Felix turned his head to glare up at _her_ she covered her mouth, but the damage had already been done. 

“Sorry, sorry!” she said. “I just...you’re sulking because our _six_ -year-old son said he hates you?”

“I’m not sulking,” Felix said, quite obviously sulking, “but yes, that’s why I’m...upset.”

Upset. Annette couldn’t make light of that, even if she thought it a little silly. “Oh, Felix, he’s only six,” she said. 

“Doesn’t mean he didn’t mean it,” he said.

“I know,” she admitted, “but it’s not...well, when I was six I told my mother I hated her because she wouldn’t let me have two candies after dinner.”

Felix frowned, looking as if he considered her words. 

“Did you...do something that upset him?” Annette wondered. 

“Perhaps,” Felix said. 

“What was it?”

“I refused to let him _explore_ the tunnels beneath the castle unsupervised.”

“Hmm, yes, that would upset him,” she conceded. “Curious children hate being told no.” She traced a fingertip over the shell of Felix’s ear, unable to help a smile when he swatted her hand away. 

Too ticklish there then. 

“I nearly drowned down there when I was a child,” Felix said, to her surprise. “My old man was furious with us for that.”

And then for Annette it clicked. 

His father died thinking Felix hated him. Of course he would be upset by his own son’s careless words whether or not they were born of childish pique.

“Felix, he’s…”

“Only six, I know,” he said. He sat up, so abruptly she flinched, and buried his face in his hands. 

Annette rested her hand on his shoulder. “Well, yes,” she conceded. “And...because he’s so young he doesn’t really know any other way to tell you he was angry, and you probably didn’t help by getting angry and not explaining why either.”

He snorted but didn’t contradict her. 

“Do you—do you want me to talk to him?” she asked. “He probably won’t apologize just yet since Fraldarius men are _so_ stubborn—“

“He gets it from you,” Felix said, raising his face. 

“—but maybe I can tell him why you’re forbidding him from exploring the tunnels. And maybe when you’re done sulking you can offer to take him down into one yourself and show him how moldy and dark and honestly disgusting and boring they are.” Annette nudged him in the side, and when he glanced at her she smiled. “Well?”

Felix’s lips twitched. “Why do you have to fight my battles for me?”

“I’m your wife,” Annette reminded him. She hooked her arm through his and kissed his cheek. “It’s literally my job, so you can fight anything I can’t for me too!”

His face drew into a thoughtful frown then before he nodded. “All right,” he said. “I...accept this time. This is why I miss taking you with me on my stupid errands all over Fodlan.”

“So it’s not because you want the pleasure of my company?” Annette said, feigning hurt. “Villain.”

Felix smiled, though it was barely a flicker of one, and took her hand. “They go faster with you,” he said.

“I know,” she said. She leaned against him, just savoring his presence, and squeezed his hand. Then she stood and announced, “I’ll go talk to Ernest now, before his bedtime. Maybe I’ll convince him his villainous father deserves a conciliatory hug first too.”

To her surprise Felix followed her to the door and caught her wrist, but before she could ask if anything else bothered him he took her face in his hands and kissed her. 

Annette sighed into his lips, half exasperated and half fond, and when he pulled away she wondered, “What was that for?”

“Do I need a reason?” he said, his eyebrow quirking. 

“Well, I was on a mission to defend your honor,” she said. 

His lips pressed together before he smiled, before he kissed her forehead. “I just thought...I can’t have asked for a better mother for my children.”


	2. Hand-Holding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With their relationship still so new, Annette wonders how affectionate she can be.
> 
> For Fluffcember Day 3: "Hand holding"

“Is this all right?” Annette wondered at the same time she took Felix’s hand and wove their fingers together. 

It took her a little courage too, and her face still burned as he nodded and mumbled, “Yes.”

What else could she get away with, if he didn’t mind her holding his hand?

She leaned against him and rested her head on his shoulder, heart pounding. “Is this all right?” she asked. 

She felt more than saw him agree, in the barely perceptible way he stiffened before nodding and relaxing. 

Annette smiled, filled with a giddiness threatening to bubble over. Felix rarely let anyone touch him, but he was letting _her_.

His thumb brushing over her knuckles startled her, as did his breath on her forehead and his lips in her hair. “I-is that all right?” he asked, voice quiet. 

Helpless despite herself, she nodded. 

And then—

His fingers not clutched in hers touched her chin. Her breath stuck in her lungs as Felix turned her head so she faced him. 

He didn’t quite meet her eyes, but he leaned closer, so close she could see the slivers of brown in his warm golden eyes. “Is this all right?” he whispered. 

She didn’t even know he _could_ whisper like that. 

“Yes,” Annette breathed before he tentatively brushed her lips with his own. 


	3. First Kiss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felix asks permission rather than forgiveness, just this once.
> 
> For Fluffcember Day 4: "First Kiss"

Felix did not ask _permission_. He barely even announced his intentions. He favored boldness over uncertainty, independence over consultation, obstinacy over folding. He did not always get or earn what he wanted - he did not always _understand_ what he wanted - but he always took the steps to achieve it, alone, for himself.

And maybe that was partly why his own words took him aback, while all the blood rushed to his face and his heart raced as if he just challenged an enemy general to a duel rather than ask the diminutive - but no less intimidating, and Felix would take that particular concession to his grave - woman before him if he could—

“Did you just ask me if you could...kiss me?” Annette spoke the operative word in such a small voice it almost disappeared. She stared at him with wide eyes while he devoutly stared at a single gold strand of her hair outlined in the sunlight streaming in through the high library window. 

Felix scrubbed a hand over his face and sighed. “Don’t make me ask again,” he gritted out. His spine felt so stiff a book pelted at him could snap him in half. 

Annette’s sharp inhale drew his eyes back to her face, to take in the pink in her cheeks and her lips parted in surprise, enough information he knew he’d only succeeded in startling her rather than...anything else. He’d already broken so many of his own internalized rules and routines for her, yet she had the audacity to be so shocked by this?

But then she bobbed her head in a jerky little nod. “I-if you want,” she said. “You can...kiss me.”

That was it, the _permission_ he’d waited for, yet no tension eased from his shoulders. Instead he wondered, “D-do you want?”

“Do I want you to kiss me, you mean?” Annette asked. When Felix nodded, she licked her lips - which was awfully unfair of her - before her hands caught the front of his coat. “Y-yes,” she confessed to his collar. “Please.”

Only when they stood there nodding at each other, silence filled with the sound of their breathing, did Felix remember Annette expected him to move. So he swallowed his nerves, pushed away that _uncertainty_ he hated that warned him she would hate _it_ and maybe him, braced his hand against the bookshelf behind her, and leaned down. 

At the same time Annette leaned up, and he felt her breath warm and inviting on his lips before he touched them to hers. 


	4. Reunited

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felix and Annette meet again in Fhirdiad after the war.
> 
> For Fluffcember Day 5: "Reunited"

“Of course the first place I find you in a year is the training grounds.”

Felix does not fumble his dull blade, but he falters enough Ingrid disarms him far too easily. He doesn’t bother glaring at her - or making much note of her smirk - and instead spins around to find Annette standing at the entrance. 

“I…” Last time he saw her, during a brief stay in Fhirdiad right after the war before he returned to Fraldarius - home, made unfamiliar, made his in a way it never was before - she wore her hair long and loose. It’s shorter now, curling elegantly against her neck. 

Otherwise she looks the same, smile as bright as he remembers it. 

Ingrid clears her throat and dismisses herself, fondly patting Annette’s shoulder on her way out before leaving them alone (or as alone as anyone can be in the royal castle’s busy training grounds).

“I, um, I stopped at yours on my way,” Felix admits. He replaces his training blade on the rack before approaching her. “Your mother told me you weren’t home.”

“My...mother?” Annette blinks in surprise. She holds her arm out towards him, and for one alarming moment he worries she’s trying to fend him off until he recognizes a water skin in her hands. 

He accepts it, though the quick spar with Ingrid barely winded him. “She’s…nice,” Felix offers. “Invited me to stay until you did come home.”

“Yes...nice,” Annette says, sounding distracted. Her cheeks flush, not that he has much of a chance to glimpse the color with how she covers her face with an arm. “How long are you in Fhirdiad this time?”

“A few weeks,” he tells her. “Maybe a moon.”

“A whole moon.” Annette’s arm falls away, and she tucks a few loose strands of hair behind her ear. “Plenty of time for you to redeem yourself.”

“Redeem myself?” 

“For talking to my mother before you talked to me.” The glare she shoots him is probably intended to burn him, but it’s so familiar Felix can’t help smiling. 


	5. Sunrise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Annette falls asleep on his shoulder, and Felix doesn't have the heart to wake her even once he sees the sunrise.
> 
> For Fluffcember Day 6: "Sunrise"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning for mild innuendo?

It was unlike Felix to stay awake till sunrise without reason, but it was so easy to lose track of time with Annette here.

Or perhaps he savored every moment she stayed, before she’d return to Fhirdiad again. 

She fell asleep slumped against his shoulder over an hour ago after spending half the night mumbling. They sat on a blanket on the castle’s roof, one of his favorite haunts in summer because it was easier to forget the duties that plagued him with the sky overhead and the crashing of the waves against the cliffs so close. 

Especially by night. Everything sounded louder by night, loud enough to drown out his thoughts, even Annette’s gentle snores and his own heartbeat. 

He rubbed his eyes and yawned, feeling sleep tugging insistently at him as the sky to the east lightened from a deep velvety blue. Orange tinted the horizon, and only the brightest stars still lingered to greet the sun. 

He was tempted to wake Annette and ask her to write a song about it. She could make it sound prettier than it was too.

Instead his arm curved around her waist, drawing her closer, and he rested his cheek against the top of her head. In a few moments if she didn’t wake he’d carry her back downstairs and to her guest bedchamber before returning to his own and attempting to sleep a few hours. Felix couldn’t afford to sleep his whole morning away, but he wasn’t stupid enough to attempt any work without some rest. 

Annette stirred against him then, a shuffling of her body that made him stiffen before a sigh slipped from her. 

His hand drifted to her shoulder, and he asked, “Do you want to walk to bed, or should I just carry you before you bump into any walls?”

She raised her head and blinked blearily at him, confusion obvious in her frown before she rubbed her eyes and mumbled, “Why didn’t you wake me earlier?”

“You had a long day,” he told her. 

“We’re still outside…” She spared a glance for the sun cresting the horizon, rays filtering through clouds and giving her hair a faint glow. 

“And a long night,” Felix offered, shrugging. 

Annette groaned before yawning. “Ugh...people will talk,” she complained. 

“And?” He cupped her cheek and leaned closer to brush his lips against her forehead. “Sitting on the roof all night isn’t a very interesting scandal.”

“They’ll assume...other things, Felix,” she grumbled.

“On the roof?” he said, raising an eyebrow. “That doesn’t sound very comfortable.”

“Ugh.” Annette’s hand collided with his arm, and he couldn’t help smiling. “Fine. It doesn’t matter, but I’ll...walk.” Her lips quirked into a slight grin, and she seemed to recollect some semblance of her usual wakeful wit as she patted his cheek. “You’ll have to wait till after the wedding to carry me to bed.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you're interested and want to see these fics in their original screenshot-y glory, they're [over on Twitter](https://twitter.com/gazelle_gazette/status/1333512772022243328?s=20)! I promise there's no difference between them though


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